Monday, April 24, 2006

More oil strike in Xinjiang

BEIJING - Sinopec, China's largest refiner and second-largest oil and gas producer, may reinforce its upstream production with the recent discovery in Xinjiang of an oilfield that may be of comparable importance to Daqing, the country's largest oilfield, which has been producing more than 40 million tons per year of crude for three decades. Sinopec is currently conducting a drill-stem test on the Tashen 1 wildcat well, located in its Tahe oilfield in Xinjiang . Historically, almost every drill-stem test has yielded a big discovery. Daqing, for example, is a result of a drill-stem test conducted on the Songji 3 well in 1959. A drill-stem test on the Tazhong 1 well in 1988 resulted in the discovery of Tarim oilfield.

Experts estimate that Tashen may have a reserve comparable to Daqing, but the answer may still take time and effort to check. If the discovery fulfills its potential, it will make the Tahe field's output, currently at 3.85 million tons per year, exceed the goal of 10 million tons per year Sinopec plans for 2010.

Not only that, if the oilfield does have a comparable size to Daqing as has been speculated, Sinopec may actually surpass PetroChina to become China's largest oil producer. source here. (Asia Pulse/XIC)